St. Louis (KSDK) - Winning the lottery sounds like an amazing opportunity to solve your financial problems for life.

But for some big winners, the ending isn't always happy.

The Mega Millions machine was spitting out ticket after ticket at a downtown gas station Wednesday. Around 1,800 tickets were sold Tuesday, and hundreds more today. Maybe one of these people will have the golden ticket and win $400 million.

Financial planner Ed Butowsky says he's seen some of his clients invest in businesses they don't understand, which is a big mistake.

"I represent lots of people who have sudden wealth and they can be professional athletes. I've actually worked with some lottery winners and what naturally happens is they literally overspend. They don't understand how to manage money they don't understand the value of putting money away," he said.

Butowsky says one of the biggest mistakes instant millionaires make is investing in businesses they don't understand and wind up losing a lot of their money.